Wentse Chen

Wentse Chen, Shiyu Huang, Yuan Chiang et al.

Most reinforcement learning algorithms seek a single optimal strategy that solves a given task. However, it can often be valuable to learn a diverse set of solutions, for instance, to make an agent's interaction with users more engaging, or improve the robustness of a policy to an unexpected perturbance. We propose Diversity-Guided Policy Optimization (DGPO), an on-policy algorithm that discovers multiple strategies for solving a given task. Unlike prior work, it achieves this with a shared policy network trained over a single run. Specifically, we design an intrinsic reward based on an information-theoretic diversity objective. Our final objective alternately constraints on the diversity of the strategies and on the extrinsic reward. We solve the constrained optimization problem by casting it as a probabilistic inference task and use policy iteration to maximize the derived lower bound. Experimental results show that our method efficiently discovers diverse strategies in a wide variety of reinforcement learning tasks. Compared to baseline methods, DGPO achieves comparable rewards, while discovering more diverse strategies, and often with better sample efficiency.

Jiayu Chen, Le Xu, Wentse Chen et al.

Offline RL is a powerful approach for data-driven decision-making and control. Compared to model-free methods, offline model-based RL (MBRL) explicitly learns world models from a static dataset and uses them as surrogate simulators, improving the data efficiency and enabling the learned policy to potentially generalize beyond the dataset support. However, there could be various MDPs that behave identically on the offline dataset and dealing with the uncertainty about the true MDP can be challenging. In this paper, we propose modeling offline MBRL as a Bayes Adaptive Markov Decision Process (BAMDP), which is a principled framework for addressing model uncertainty. We further propose a novel Bayes Adaptive Monte-Carlo planning algorithm capable of solving BAMDPs in continuous state and action spaces with stochastic transitions. This planning process is based on Monte Carlo Tree Search and can be integrated into offline MBRL as a policy improvement operator in policy iteration. Our ``RL + Search" framework follows in the footsteps of superhuman AIs like AlphaZero, improving on current offline MBRL methods by incorporating more computation input. The proposed algorithm significantly outperforms state-of-the-art offline RL methods on twelve D4RL MuJoCo tasks and three target tracking tasks in a challenging, stochastic tokamak control simulator. The codebase is available at: https://github.com/LucasCJYSDL/Offline-RL-Kit.

Shiyu Huang, Wentse Chen, Yiwen Sun et al.

We present OpenRL, an advanced reinforcement learning (RL) framework designed to accommodate a diverse array of tasks, from single-agent challenges to complex multi-agent systems. OpenRL's robust support for self-play training empowers agents to develop advanced strategies in competitive settings. Notably, OpenRL integrates Natural Language Processing (NLP) with RL, enabling researchers to address a combination of RL training and language-centric tasks effectively. Leveraging PyTorch's robust capabilities, OpenRL exemplifies modularity and a user-centric approach. It offers a universal interface that simplifies the user experience for beginners while maintaining the flexibility experts require for innovation and algorithm development. This equilibrium enhances the framework's practicality, adaptability, and scalability, establishing a new standard in RL research. To delve into OpenRL's features, we invite researchers and enthusiasts to explore our GitHub repository at https://github.com/OpenRL-Lab/openrl and access our comprehensive documentation at https://openrl-docs.readthedocs.io.